A celebration of integrating creative movement, visual arts, drama, poetry, music, and storytelling into everyday teaching practices since 2006. This is a place to both share and learn new approaches that engage and energize our students, our teaching practices and ourselves.

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Science and Dance together, What?

I constantly have math and science teachers tell me "this is a math (or science) class, I can't integrate the arts like they do in English and History." To that I heartily disagree. Don't believe me? Then check out this lesson on the ArtsEdge site that pairs Atomic and Molecular Structure with Dance. And oh ya, you're worried about standards right? Don't be, it covers National Standards in Dance, Physical Education, and of course Science. Here's the lesson overview:

In this lesson, students will utilize their knowledge of basic physical science concepts to create movement patterns that simulate the movement of atoms and molecules. They will formulate and answer questions about how movement choices communicate abstract ideas in dance and demonstrate an understanding of how personal experience influences the interpretation of a dance.

Students verbally explain and then create with a stretch rope several geometric shapes (triangle, rectangle, square, and circle). Students also identify and create the missing shape in a set of patterns. After exploring ways to arrange the four geometric shapes, students work in small groups to create a dance including all four shapes and transitional movements.

The point is this: Math and Science lessons readily lend themselves to integrating the arts. One of the main blocks that I find with teachers is the trepidation of breaking out of the way that it's all been done for a hundred years, when that is exactly what our kids need. Why not take a chance and give it a shot.